1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an evaporatively pre-cooled seat assembly for supporting a passenger.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The comfort of a passenger and/or a driver inside a vehicle in a warm temperature environment is increased by cooling or air conditioning the interior of the vehicle. Current vehicles each have a primary vapor compression air conditioning system that delivers air that is cooled by the vehicle's Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) module. The primary air conditioning system is usually located behind the instrument panel. The primary air conditioning system utilizes ducts to convey the cooled air through the instrument panel and vents to deliver the cooled air from the ducts to the interior thereby cooling the entire passenger compartment. The cool air then circulates throughout the interior and cools the passenger. The cooling of the passenger is relatively slow because a significant amount of cool air is utilized to cool the surrounding thermal mass with only part of the cool air actually cooling the passenger.
The cooling rate associated with the passenger can be improved by placing the passenger in direct contact with the cool surfaces produced by the air conditioning system. One of the ways to accomplish this objective is to cool the seat in which the passenger sits. It is well known to flow cool air over a seat cushion to produce a cool seat surface. The cooling air can be supplied by the primary air conditioning system of the vehicle or by an auxiliary cooler such as a thermoelectric air conditioner embedded in the seat assembly. Such a seat assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,336 to Feher and U.S. Pat. No. 7,238,101 to Kadle et al.
However, upon initial start-up, the conditioned air is incapable of providing quick comfort to the passenger as the conditioned air must first overcome the thermal inertia of the vehicle interior. Operating in series with the primary air conditioning system, the auxiliary cooler is designed to provide faster comfort to the passenger only upon its initial cool down and under steady state operation.